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Darth Bagel
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2005
- Messages
- 383
I'm typing this on an aging Dell Inspiron 8200 that i've used for at least 3 hours a day for the last 2 years or so. As such, it's starting to get a little ragged, and I'm looking into getting a replacement for it. Unfortunately, I'm encountering some real difficulties in finding exactly what kind of laptop I'd replace it with. I haven't found anything thus far that really fits my needs exactly, and I'm a little worried about spending so much money on something that's not exactly as I want it.
What I'd like to see is this:
must be <= 5 lbs
> 3 hours of battery life, preferably more like 4 or 5
512mb of memory and a reasonable amount of processing power
no pointing nipple/stick/whatever. i hate them.
internal 802.11g
a keyboard big enough for me to type on quickly and comfortably (i have kinda big hands)
sxga or better panel. I refuse to have an xga panel that's more than 12".
This is what I've found so far:
Dell Inspiron 600m:
1.8ghz pentium-m, 512mb memory, 64mb video, sxga panel, extra modular battery
pros: Really everything i want spec-wise except for weight.
cons: It starts off at slightly less than 5 lbs, and the extra battery weighs somewhere between .5 and .7 lbs, which puts it way over the target weight. Also towards the expensive side of the machines I've considered. I've also heard questionable things about Dell's current build quality.
Dell Inspiron 700m:
1.8ghz pentium m, 512mb memory, 12" wxga panel, 8-cell battery
is this laptop dual-battery capable?
pros: Smaller and lighter than the 600m, definitely seems like it would be more portable
cons: Panel is just wxga, I don't know how good the battery life would be, or if the extra battery/batteries would put the weight up too high (the 8-cell batteries are 1.02 lbs each), I've heard the keyboard is small, and again the questions about Dell's build quality
Averatec 32XX series:
athlon xp2200-m, 512mb memory, no dvd burner
pros: cheap and relatively light, and I've read great things about these laptops
cons: feels chintzy as hell when i play with it at circuit city, I've heard questioning of the battery life, relateively new company
12" iBook G4:
1.2ghz g4, 512mb memory, 3 years applecare, all for 1200+tax
pros: looks nifty, feels ok when i've played with them, great battery life, built-in unix terminal
cons: foreign operating system, possible difficulties finding applications that will work, extremely difficult to find a review of one that doesn't look like it was written by a !!!!!!, I've heard apple is releasing a new g5 iBook Q2 this year and I'd feel stupid buying this and immediately having apple release a better one
I've also found other offerings by CyberPower and iBuyPower, and they seem to be pretty good, but again I'm not sure about battery life or build quality or customer service, so I've pretty much ruled them out unless somebody can point me towards some good reviews.
Now I've looked into it a bunch, and I'm leaning towards the iBook simply because I'm told it can do everything that I need from a laptop. However, I don't particularly want to learn how to use OS X, nor do I really want to give up the flexibility that I've learned how to create in Windows. The biggest thing about them that makes me nervous is that the only information on them that I can find appears to be written by die-hard lunatics that either think that anything apple is the best thing since the last thing apple released (the sort that would be perfectly happy to be beaten to death, as long as it was with apple products, you all know someone like this), or they think that apples are the spawn of satan and anybody that uses them is utter trash and should be burned at the stake.
And now that I've reached the end of my post, I feel compelled to thank anybody who actually took the time to read all the way through my post, and also more thanks to anybody who can give me any sort of input or suggestions.
What I'd like to see is this:
must be <= 5 lbs
> 3 hours of battery life, preferably more like 4 or 5
512mb of memory and a reasonable amount of processing power
no pointing nipple/stick/whatever. i hate them.
internal 802.11g
a keyboard big enough for me to type on quickly and comfortably (i have kinda big hands)
sxga or better panel. I refuse to have an xga panel that's more than 12".
This is what I've found so far:
Dell Inspiron 600m:
1.8ghz pentium-m, 512mb memory, 64mb video, sxga panel, extra modular battery
pros: Really everything i want spec-wise except for weight.
cons: It starts off at slightly less than 5 lbs, and the extra battery weighs somewhere between .5 and .7 lbs, which puts it way over the target weight. Also towards the expensive side of the machines I've considered. I've also heard questionable things about Dell's current build quality.
Dell Inspiron 700m:
1.8ghz pentium m, 512mb memory, 12" wxga panel, 8-cell battery
is this laptop dual-battery capable?
pros: Smaller and lighter than the 600m, definitely seems like it would be more portable
cons: Panel is just wxga, I don't know how good the battery life would be, or if the extra battery/batteries would put the weight up too high (the 8-cell batteries are 1.02 lbs each), I've heard the keyboard is small, and again the questions about Dell's build quality
Averatec 32XX series:
athlon xp2200-m, 512mb memory, no dvd burner
pros: cheap and relatively light, and I've read great things about these laptops
cons: feels chintzy as hell when i play with it at circuit city, I've heard questioning of the battery life, relateively new company
12" iBook G4:
1.2ghz g4, 512mb memory, 3 years applecare, all for 1200+tax
pros: looks nifty, feels ok when i've played with them, great battery life, built-in unix terminal
cons: foreign operating system, possible difficulties finding applications that will work, extremely difficult to find a review of one that doesn't look like it was written by a !!!!!!, I've heard apple is releasing a new g5 iBook Q2 this year and I'd feel stupid buying this and immediately having apple release a better one
I've also found other offerings by CyberPower and iBuyPower, and they seem to be pretty good, but again I'm not sure about battery life or build quality or customer service, so I've pretty much ruled them out unless somebody can point me towards some good reviews.
Now I've looked into it a bunch, and I'm leaning towards the iBook simply because I'm told it can do everything that I need from a laptop. However, I don't particularly want to learn how to use OS X, nor do I really want to give up the flexibility that I've learned how to create in Windows. The biggest thing about them that makes me nervous is that the only information on them that I can find appears to be written by die-hard lunatics that either think that anything apple is the best thing since the last thing apple released (the sort that would be perfectly happy to be beaten to death, as long as it was with apple products, you all know someone like this), or they think that apples are the spawn of satan and anybody that uses them is utter trash and should be burned at the stake.
And now that I've reached the end of my post, I feel compelled to thank anybody who actually took the time to read all the way through my post, and also more thanks to anybody who can give me any sort of input or suggestions.
